Items tagged with google assistant

Kenny Rogers famously sang about knowing when to hold your cards and knowing when to fold 'em (and run). Microsoft appears to be taking that lesson to heart in the digital assistant space, and rather than try to usurp Amazon's popular Alexa with its current set of cards, it has decided to play a different hand—going forward, Microsoft will focus on making Cortana available as a skill. Work on this has already begun. Cortana has been available as a skill since last year, and at Microsoft's Build 2018 conference, Microsoft demonstrated how Alexa and Cortana could work together in Windows 10...Read more...

We’ll see your 100 million assistant devices and raise you 1 billion. Google announced that it expects to sell one billion Google Assistant devices by the end of the month. The company's boast is in response to Amazon’s announcement that they had sold 100 million Alexa devices. Amazon SVP of devices and services, Dave Limp, recently remarked that 100 million Alexa devices have been sold since Alexa’s release in 2014. This number includes both Amazon devices and other products that ship with built-in Alexa. Not to be outdone by Amazon, Google reported that they have sold 10X...Read more...

There is a war raging right now in the voice assistant realm with Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft fighting to have the smartest and most popular voice assistants. A recent study named Google Assistant the most intelligent of the current crop of voice assistants, and they often show up in many places including TVs, PCs, smart watches, and speakers. It's rare for manufacturers of these devices to give up hard numbers on how many devices have sold, but Amazon has stepped up and done just that for Alexa devices. Amazon SVP of devices and services, Dave Limp, has said that over 100 million devices...Read more...

Loup Ventures has published the results of its Annual Smart Speaker IQ test where it took the four major Smart Speakers on the market that are packed with Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana and put them through a round of tests. The test asked each of the four smart speakers 800 questions to see which of the devices was able to answer the most questions and then ranked the devices based on the percentage of understood queries, and the number of questions answered correctly. The results put Google Assistant at the top of the class. Google Assistant understood 100% of the aksed queries and...Read more...

Christmas movie fans will undoubtedly know the classic flick Home Alone starring Macaulay Culkin. Google has teamed up with Culkin to reprise his role as Kevin McAllister in modern times. Google calls the new holiday film it cooked up "Home Alone Again with Google Assistant." The video has Kevin doing many of the same things he did 28 years ago when his parents forgot him at home and went away on a trip. The catch this time is that Kevin has a Google Home packing the Google Assistant to help him spend his days alone. Kevin has the assistant make him a shopping list for the aftershave that gave...Read more...

Whether you primarily use Siri or Google Assistant (assuming you use a digital assistant) likely comes down to which platform you're invested in—Android or iOS. It doesn't have to be one or the other, though. Google recently updated its Assistant app for iOS to support Siri Shorcuts, which allows users to call up Google's virtual assistant without having to fire up the app. Once the app is updated, the best way to take advantage of the feature is to record a familiar phrase like "OK Google" or "Hey Google." After you do that, you can tap into Google Assistant without having to open up the...Read more...

The Lenovo Smart Display (read the HotHardware review here) may have been one of the first true Google Assistant-based devices with a large touch display attached, but the new kid on the block is the Google Home Hub. Google's 7-inch device has garnered quite a bit of attention over the past few weeks for its sleek Home View, full integration with the Nest Hello Doorbell (among other perks) and its relatively low price. Today, we're learning that Lenovo is bringing some of that same Google Home Hub functionality to its own Smart Displays. New features that are being added to the 8-...Read more...

NVIDIA's "do everything" SHIELD TV is an incredibly potent media streamer + gaming platform, and it already features native support for the Google Assistant. However, the current implementation of voice control with the Google Assistant leaves a lot to be desired and is quite limited in its capabilities. NVIDIA is rectifying this issue with a new update that provides "deeper integration" with Google Home devices currently on your network. You can simply call out to your Google Home and tell it to specifically play a movie or a TV show on your SHIELD. For example, you can say "OK Google,...Read more...

The Google Home Hub was just announced last week as Google's answer to the rise in display-equipped digital assistants like the Lenovo Smart Hub. The device has a 7-inch screen, runs on the Google Cast platform, and does everything you would expect from a device that supports the Google Assistant. And priced at $149, the Google Home Hub greatly undercuts the cost of the Amazon Echo Show. Well, Home Depot is selling for the Google Home Hub right now for an amazingly low price of $99. We don't know if this is a price mistake, or just some early bird special that the retailer is running...Read more...

We’ve been hearing talks about a Google-branded, display-equipped smart home device powered by the Google Assistant for several months. The rumors really started heating up once companies like Lenovo released its own Smart Display Google Assistant-based device (read the HotHardware review here). Now, we’re getting a look at what are allegedly the first images of Google’s upcoming product courtesy of MySmartPrice. The device is called the Google Home Hub and features a 7-inch touch screen. As far as appearances are concerned, it looks a Google Home...Read more...

We all know someone who uses their smartphone a little too often, whether it's a relentless barrage of selfies sent through Snapchat or an inability to log off social media in general. To combat this, Google introduced its Digital Wellbeing initiative at its most recent I/O event. It mostly consists of providing tools for users to monitor how much time they spend on their phones and watching YouTube videos, and some of the features are headed to Google Home and the Google Assistant. "We’re dedicated to building technology that is truly helpful for everyone. We’re creating tools and...Read more...

The Lenovo Smart display is the first in an assault of Google Assistant-enabled devices set to hit the market this year. They will take on Amazon's Echo Show in a battle for smart home assistant technology, with not only a set of ears, but also a set of eyes and a display face to complete the experience. Priced at $249.99 for a 10-inch version and $199.99 for an 8-inch variant, with identical hardware specs except for the display, these are a new breed of smart home devices that have the potential to give Google and its OEM partners a leg-up on Amazon. Since they're part of the "Android...Read more...

Way back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, Lenovo announced its Smart Display family. The Smart Displays take the concept of the Google Home or Google Home Mini and add a touch screen into the mix. Lenovo and Google announced today that the Smart Display will be available in U.S. retail locations and online stores starting this weekend. The Lenovo Smart Display is available in two screen sizes: 8-inches or 10-inches with HD resolutions. Looking at the devices, you wouldn't be out of line to say that it's a Google Assistant-backed alternative to the Amazon Echo Show. Given...Read more...

New research into the effectiveness and accuracy of Amazon's Echo and Google's Home smart speakers powered by Alexa and Google Now, respectively, shows that the digital assistants have some difficulty understanding and responding to users with accents. This includes regional dialects, but especially people who speak English as a second language. The disparity was brought up by The Washington Post, which shared an anecdote involving a Vancouver resident who was raised in Columbia and has a light Spanish accent. When she would ask Alexa to perform menial tasks, the digital assistant would trip over...Read more...